Ex-Dolphins QB Pat White would be "open" to return

The former second-round pick is trying to make NFL comeback

MOBILE, Al. – Pat White, humbled and repentant, wants to be a NFL quarterback again. And he’d even be open to a reunion with the Miami Dolphins.

“I’d be open to it, definitely,” the 26-year-old White said Wednesday afternoon after the North team practice at the Senior Bowl. “I definitely would be open to speaking with them.”

White, the Dolphins’ 2009 second-round draft pick who had a one-year NFL career, has been at the Senior Bowl practices all week shaking hands and chatting it up with NFL types as though he was running for political office.

“I just wanted to come show my face and show my interest, shake hands, get names, put names to faces and I guess let them know that my body is still healthy, my football mind is still intact, and I want to give it another shot,” said White, who lives in Fort Lauderdale.

One NFL general manager isn’t sure what to make of White’s chances.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those deals he’s just going to have to get a chance to kind of see where he is physically because it’s been a while.

“Is there a chance for him to come back? It could be. I commend him for trying to get out there and show his face and let everybody know he wants it.”

It’d be fair to say White’s brief time with the Dolphins was disastrous. His career stats: 0-for-5 passing, and 81 yards rushing on 21 carries.

The dream for Dolphins executive Bill Parcells was that White would run the Wildcat offense and be the elusive, dynamic playmaker he was during college at West Virginia. The reality was he was little-used because his arm was inaccurate and his feet didn’t have the same knack for carving up NFL defenses the way they did against NCAA defenses.

One of the lasting images Dolphins fans have of White is him being carried off the field on a stretcher in the 2009 season finale at Sun Life Stadium after taking a vicious hit from Pittsburgh’s Ike Taylor. White didn’t show up for the opening day of training camp in 2010 due to personal issues and was eventually cut before the season opener.

“But for the people blaming the Dolphins I would like to say the reason l’m no longer on their team is 100 percent me,” he said.

White, a standout baseball player who was a fourth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Angels in 2004, didn’t get any NFL feelers after being released by the Dolphins so he tried his luck at baseball, signing with the Kansas City Royals. He retired after a few months. In 2011, he was cut by the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. Now he’s trying to come full circle and get back into the NFL.

“It came down to me trying to run from myself and having nowhere to run,” he said.

It’s been an introspective journey. White has concluded he could have worked harder, watched more film, stayed later after practice during his previous NFL career.

“I was very disrespectful to the gifts I was given,” he said of his time with the Dolphins. “In turn, they were taken away from me. And I guess it took me a while to realize I was blessed. Not too many get those blessings. I’m just hoping to have another opportunity to show my gratitude to the man up above for the gifts that he gave me.”

White, who said he hasn’t contacted the Dolphins about a possible return, said a second trip to the NFL wouldn’t be anything resembling his first go-round.

“I guess I stopped believing in myself, that was my view,” he said. “It had nothing to do with what the Dolphins did, how they tried to use me. It was just me, myself, not believing, and things turned out the way they did because of that. I learned.”